VIRTUAL REALITY
By Atonia Walpole
PART FIFTEEN:
Kath woke to the trill of her cell phone ringing. She got up and found her purse.
“Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you for the last two hours?”
“Oh, sorry, Ham. I was asleep. What time is it?”
“Kath, are you okay?”
“Um, yes, just a little lethargic this morning. What’s up?”
“All hell broke loose. Virtual Reality stock took a nosedive. It’s bottomed.”
“Really? Something is going on…wait! The story hasn’t gone to press yet, has it?”
“Clear your head, honey. No, it’s out today. The stock plummeted before the story.”
“All right, let me get myself together and I’ll go in.”
“Kath, it’s after ten o’clock.”
“Oh, shit! Later, Ham.”
Kath had never been late to work in the five years she’d been at The Times. She rushed around getting a shower and dressed. Why had she slept so late? She ran into the kitchen to take her vitamins and noticed the full cup of coffee on the counter. Something tickled her mind…Sid, where was he?”
She remembered him telling her he was leaving, had an apartment downtown. She remembered him in the kitchen; after that, nothing. She knew something had happened. He had done something to her but she had no idea what. She had no time for this but she took a quick look in the spare bedroom. His things were gone.
She called her boss on the way to the car and got an earful. Driving to work she received a texted message from Sid.
“You have my number, if you ever need me ...”
There was more but she was in traffic and dropped the phone in her purse. She’d have to read it later.
Once in her cubicle, Barney drifted by. “You’d better come and watch,” he said.
“What?” she asked, grabbing her notebook and a pen.
Several people were gathered around a financial network station.
“Every company that fed into Virtual Reality is falling. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Davis said, scratching his head.
Kath’s cell went off and she stepped away from the group. “Ham, it’s crazy!”
“Yeah, I’ve been watching the news. That list of names you brought me yesterday, Derek Ryerson. He seems to have vanished. Left no forwarding address. Go to the archives and see if we have anything on him.”
“Okay. He was the Apple guy?”
“He was, early on.”
“I’m going down there now. Oh, Ham, I meant to tell you, Sid has moved out. Says he has an apartment downtown somewhere.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Call me when you find something.”
Sid gleefully sat in front of his computer. Virtual Reality was a reality no more. He stood up and walked over to the floor to ceiling windows, looking out over the city. Somewhere out there Kath was working.
He reminded himself he was moving on. He’d given himself a present last night. Too bad he couldn’t have shared it with her. He licked his lips. It had been wonderful and he would never forget it. He wondered for a moment if Ham had found the rich man yet. He smiled to himself. It would only be a matter of time and only a matter of time until Kath was happy.
He rubbed his hands together then sat back down in front of his computer. Now for the training center.
Kath hurried from the elevator to Ham’s room. “I just brought it all,” she said, heaving a box into the chair.
“Good grief, Kath! How is it filed?”
“Uh, front to back by date. Start at the front?” She brought over a folder.
An hour later three folders and their contents covered Ham’s bed along with Kath, sitting on the foot between his legs.
“The dates correspond with the start up of Virtual Reality. He was involved at the beginning, must have been.” Kath pushed her hair over her shoulder.
“I was never into video games, never paid any attention to this stuff,” Ham said.
“Oh, well, maybe I should be working with Barney, then?”
Ham rolled his eyes up at her. “I don’t want you in Barney’s bed.”
“Hmm? Do you want me in yours?”
“You’re in it.”
Kath smiled to herself. “Are you comfortable? Should I get out?”
“No, I’m not comfortable, and no.” He tossed a sheet of paper to her.
“Ham, I was just thinking about this care center they’re trying to get you into. It won’t be much different than this, will it?”
“I don’t know,” he was reading.
“Well,um, maybe I could take you home with me? I don’t have steps.”
“Umph,” he looked up from the sheet of paper. “What did you say?”
“Do I have your attention? Come home with me.”
Ham stared at her.
“There are no stairs, only a step up into the house. I could roll you right in. I’ve got a spare room. You could be out of here in the morning.”
“I’ve been in this fucking hospital for three and a half weeks, Kath. I’m sick of it but I’m not moving in with you.”
“Why?”
“It’s not a good idea.”
“Why?”
“Are you looking at any of this stuff I’m handing you?”
“Why?"
“Kath…I’m not good for you.”
“Why is it when I’m around you I feel like everything is right with the world, everything is warm and golden and solid and real?”
“You’re as fucked up as I am.”
“We should get along just fine then. Will you come and let me take care of you until you’re able to do for yourself?”
“No.”
“I’ll be around at 10:00 in the morning. Have your stuff ready.”
“You’re an asshole, Kath.”
“You’ve taught me well.” Kath picked up the papers he’d given her and started to read.
PART 16:
It had not been easy getting into the computers at the training center, but Sid was there.
“What nasty little monsters you are,” he said to the screen.
“What shall I do with you?” He thought about it for a minute and then laughed. “A fatal disease, instant death, or should you suffer?” He finally decided on instant death and made it happen. He sat back in his leather desk chair. Too bad about Chris Smith but then there was no need for two. Just a little clean-up work and he was through. There was no way to trace anything back to him. He was satisfied with his day’s work.
Sid got up from his chair and stretched, walking over to the large wall of windows. The city was lit up for the night, laying out before him. He thought briefly of Kath, and then didn’t. What he needed was a new Kath. The city was full of beautiful women. He could have his pick.
Kath had shared Ham’s dinner at the hospital but she was still hungry. Digging around in her cupboards she came across a bag of chocolate chip cookies. That and a glass of milk accompanied her to her sofa. After spending hours going through papers, her mind was so full she couldn’t work. She turned on the TV and found a movie to watch. Halfway through a cookie she remembered the text message from Sid and retrieved her phone.
“You have my number. If you ever need anything, you have only to call me. I will be there. I love you, Kath.”
“Oh, that’s sweet,” she said aloud. She wondered where he was and what he was doing. She checked her phone and made sure she had his number.
Half a bag of cookies later, she went into her spare room to change the sheets and do a little clean up. Standing by the bed she thought of what Sid said about the bed being too small. Ham was larger than Sid. It wouldn’t be comfortable for him at all, especially with the casts on his legs. Kath smiled. She’d put him in her bed. She laughed, thinking it might be the only way to get him there. She went into her room and looked at the bed. It was as she’d left it that morning when she woke in such a hurry. Bundling up her sheets she caught a scent. It was Sid’s scent. She sat down on the side of the bed. He’d slept with her. “Damn you, Sid.”
She stripped her bed down to the mattress and bundled everything off to the washer. She was angry now, realizing what he’d done. She vacuumed, she scrubbed, she dusted, she polished, trying to get rid of every vestige of Sid 6.7. When she finished, her house had never been so clean. To top it off she gave herself a good scrubbing.
Setting her alarm clock, she went to bed in the spare room.
Ham lay under the glow of the fluorescent lamp on the wall above his bed. He hadn’t agreed. He didn’t have to do it. She was pushing him and he still had time to tell her to fuck off. Damn woman. Why did she have to come into his life anyway? He was doing fine on his own. At 44 years old and with two broken marriages behind him he didn’t need another. He was married to his work and she never complained. “Oh, for God’s sake, Kath, why didn’t you leave me alone?”
“I’m telling you Kath, it’s a ghost town, not a vehicle in sight and the gates are padlocked.” Barney said, leaning over Kath’s cubicle.
“No lights…nothing?”
“They’re gone…nothing.”
“That’s strange. I was out there a week ago and took pictures.”
“Ham’s piece must have hit home somewhere.”
“Hmm, that and the stock market plunge. Virtual Reality disappeared like overnight. I’ve never known a business to go down that fast.”
“Davis says something is fishy about the whole stock market thing.”
“I believe him, and whatever they were doing out at the training center was illegal anyway.”
“Why didn’t Ham write about the island thing, about games becoming real?”
“Would you believe it? Besides we had no real proof, only Schofield’s imaginings. He was a strange dude, Barney.”
“You’d better get moving if you’re going to pick up Ham. Sure will be glad when he’s back. I miss his ugly face.”
“He might be back sooner than you think now that he has a place to stay he can get in and out of.” Kath smiled picking up her shoulder bag.
Ham was sitting in his wheelchair when Kath entered the room.
“Ah you’re up. Doc been by everything ready to go?”
“I’m not going, Kath,” Ham said, lifting his chin.
Kath walked around his room and noticed his belongings packed in a duffle bag, his computer in its leather carrying case.
“Oh, I see. What changed your mind?”
“I never agreed to go. That was all you.”
Kath picked up his duffle and laid it in his lap, slung his computer over her shoulder and pushed him out of the room.
Ham looked out of the passenger window as the last of the hospital passed from view. “You’re going to regret this, Kath, I’m telling you.”
“That’s sometime in the future, Ham. By the time regret comes up you and I will have a storyline for it. We will have researched it to death, defined it, redefined it and worked it out.”
“You seem awfully confident.”
“I am. I need you, Ham, and right now you need me, if only during recuperation.”
“Then what? After you drown me in domestic bliss, what then? Are you going to toss me back to my own digs totally dependent on you, without even my pride to carry with me?”
“I love it when you talk sexy,” she grinned.
“God dammit, woman! Watch where you’re going! You almost hit that truck.”
“Relax, Ham. Believe me, I know what I’m doing and where I’m going.”
Ham looked over at her profile as she drove. He was damned if he knew anything anymore.
“Derek Ryerson, did you find him, Ham?”
“He’s got a little island hideaway somewhere in the South Pacific, address unknown of course. He owns the whole island, was last seen in this country two years ago.”
“Oooh, I wonder if he’s fighting warriors?”
“Who knows? I don’t think he’ll be acquiring anymore if he is. Barney called me this morning and told me about the training center. Kath, do you think your lunatic friend had anything to do with this?”
“I have no idea and he’s not MY lunatic friend.”
“He do something to piss you off?”
“You could say that. We’re almost home.”
“I think he’s in it up to his computer-generated eyeballs.”
“We’ll never know for sure because I’m not going to interview him.”
“Good. I’m not asking you to. We’re stopping here?”
“This is where I live and now so do you.”
Kath parked the car and looked over at Ham.
“You are the damnedest woman I have ever known.” And then he smiled.
ON TO "INTO THE VOID", THE SEQUEL TO "VIRTUAL REALITY"
BACK TO LIBRISCROWE